2023-07-16 15:45:09
Eddy de Pretto, Vanessa Paradis, Etienne Daho and Thomas Dutronc, on stage with Jane Birkin during the presentation of her Victory of Honor, during the 36th Victoires de la Musique ceremony, in Boulogne-Billancourt (Hauts-de-Seine), February 12, 2021. PASCAL LE SEGRETAIN / GETTY IMAGES VIA AFP
The tributes followed one another, Sunday July 16, after the announcement of the death, at 76, of the Franco-British singer and actress Jane Birkin. Emmanuel Macron hailed a “French icon” Who “embodied freedom” et “sung the most beautiful words of our language”. “A complete artist, her voice was as sweet as her engagements were fiery. She bequeaths us tunes and images that will never leave us.wrote the Head of State on Twitter.
Read also: Jane Birkin, singer and actress, died at the age of 76
Elisabeth Borne greeted “an unforgettable icon, [à la] voice and [au] unique charm »Who, “by his music and his talent”a “transcended the generations”. “Thank you for the emotions aroused and this legacy that will live forever”, tweeted the prime minister.
The Ministry of Culture paid tribute to this star whose “Collaborations with the greatest (Serge Gainsbourg, Etienne Daho and Agnès Varda) have made her a timeless French-speaking icon”, closely followed by the Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul Malak, for whom “Jane B. was mischief, impertinent elegance, the never-outdated emblem of an entire era, a murmuring voice that remains our idol”.
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“The most French of British artists”
Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, paid tribute to “the most Parisian of English women”. “We will never forget his songs, his laughter or his incomparable accent that have always accompanied us”she wrote on Twitter. UK Ambassador to France Menna Rawlings said to herself “Sad to learn of the passing of Jane Birkin (…) “the most French of British artists” ».
On Facebookthe singer Etienne Daho, one of his relatives, who co-composed his last album, Oh ! Sorry you were sleeping… (2020), posted a short message: “Unimaginable to live in a world without your light”while actor and director Pierre Richard posted on Twitter : “Jane, so funny, so smart, so fragile, so generous, so everything! A piece of my heart goes with her. » The singers Sheila, Patrick Bruel, Benjamin Biolay have also saluted his memory.
Saxophonist and composer, Laurent Bardainne is one of the jazz musicians who participated in the recording of the album Oh ! Sorry you were sleeping…. He had been introduced by the musician, producer and sound engineer Philippe Zdar (1967-2019) to Etienne Daho, while he was working, in 2012, on the first album by Lou Doillon, daughter of Jane Birkin and director Jacques Doillon. “Everything went well, and since then I have been his brass arranger, for his projects or for those of others. »
The session for the brass of Jane Birkin’s album lasted only one day, at the time of the Covid-19. “She arrived masked at the studio, but I saw her sparkling eyes, it’s a beautiful memory. She didn’t come to sing, but she was there, she told us, “for the pleasure of seeing and hearing the musicians” who were recording for her. She was very admiring, natural, fresh, super sweet, attentive. In the headphones, between takes, she told us, “it’s great”. There, I can still hear his voice in the studio, it’s moving. »
At the start of the day, a mystery had to be solved, recalls Laurent Bardainne, that of a noise which passed through the microphone. “She had come with her dog, an English Mastiff, a big one who always seems to sleep. And that was it, he was snoring so loudly in the cabin, that it went through everyone’s microphones. »
An artist “eternal in our hearts”
Jane Birkin, at the Cannes Film Festival, July 8, 2021. VALERY HACHE / AFP
Asked about France Bleu Champagne-Ardenne, the singer and songwriter Barcella, also at the direction of the Charabia festival, in Reims (Marne), remembered the concert that Jane Birkin had given at La Cartonnerie during the 5th edition of the festival, in November 2022. We felt that she was fragile, but she had lasted an hour and a half of show, (…) we all praised the courage she had to continue to sing and pass on, when we already felt she was tired. » Barcella adds that this “great lady of French song” had been behind the scenes “completely charming, welcoming, attentive, someone very smiling”.
Joined in his house in Finistère, the singer Christophe Miossec is very touched by the disappearance of Jane Birkin: “ I knew she was ill, of course, but I had seen her recover so many times… Everyone talks about her fragility, but it was her strength, her energy, never on hold, that impressed me. She had an almost military courage in the face of pain, it probably came from her father, a former Royal Navy officer. »
He is all the more moved that the Englishwoman and he had remained accomplices since 1997, the year when the Breton had written him a text, The Avalanchesfor the album Lightly (1998). “She had been the first to come and get me to ask me for lyrics, I was very intimidated at first”explains the one who then wrote for Juliette Gréco, Johnny Hallyday, Dani or Alain Bashung.
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They had also done many duets together – They ballad Melody Nelson, Ballad of Johnny Jane, For a flirt… – in concert, for television or radio broadcasts. “After sometimes a little weird balances, it always happened miraculously. I was doing my Serge, it had a little surreal side to it. She told me that I reassured her. »
Their friendship was also that of neighbors of Finistère. “She was very attached to her home in L’Aber Wrac’h, to the region and its inhabitants. There too, it came to him from his father who, during the war, had helped Breton resistance fighters. Besides, she knew all the elders. She had also recently made a documentary [diffusé sur France 3, dans l’émission “Le Grand BaZH’art”] on the Breton painter, sculptor and miniaturist Ronan-Jim Sévellec. »
“When you’re so pretty, so fresh, so spontaneous, with a child’s voice, you don’t have the right to die”said actress Brigitte Bardot in a statement sent to Agence France-Presse, welcoming an artist “eternal in our hearts”.
The fashion world has also hailed the memory of the woman who gave her name to a bag from the Hermès brand, among the most expensive in the world. The creator of Balmain, Olivier Rousteing, evoked the disappearance of a “icon”, whose style alternating between bohemian chic and sexy see-through dresses served as an inspiration to many. Stylist Simon Porte Jacquemus uploaded a photo of Jane Birkin as a tribute.
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